Se todos fossem iguais a você / Someone to Light Up My Life

The song was written for and introduced in the 1956 stage play Orfeu da Conceição, written by Vinícius de Moraes, featuring music by Antônio Carlos Jobim, with lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes. The play is an adaptation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the modern context of a favela in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval.

The 1959 film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus), is based on the play Orfeu da Conceição.

“Se todos fossem iguais a você” is reportedly (see below) the first song written together by Jobim and de Moraes.

The original Portuguese title may be translated into English as “If everyone were like you.”

An English version with lyric by Gene Lees, “Someone to Light Up My Life,” evidently first recorded in 1965, has been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, and Shirley Horn among others.

In the chapter “Freedom” of the 2011 book Antonio Carlos Jobim: An Illuminated Man by Helena Jobim, sister of the biography’s subject, the author indicates that this was the first song written by Tom Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes after they were formally introduced at Vilarino, a Rio bar popular with musicians, intellectuals, and journalists. Finding that they “immediately connected very well,” the pair soon left for Tom’s home and began to work on the music for Orfeu that day.

The two were introduced in 1956 by the music critic Lúcio Rangel while they were having drinks at Vilarino, a downtown bar in Rio de Janeiro that was popular among musicians and journalists. Rangel approached Tom to let him know that Vinicius, seated nearby, wanted his help composing the soundtrack for his play “Orfeu da Conceição.” Tom famously pondered, “Is there any dough in it for me?” Rangel assured him that Vinicius paid well, and so began one of the most celebrated partnerships in the history of Brazilian popular music.

Maysa — from her self-titled 1957 album, on the RGE label, catalog #RLP 0015 — The Wikipedia page on the album indicates that a 78 rpm single was also released in 1957, coupled with “Tarde Triste,” from her previous album.

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(below) Some of the images used in the following video are of the real Maysa, but most are of the actress who portrayed her in the 2009 TV miniseries, Maysa: Quando Fala o Coração.

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Agostinho dos Santos — 1958

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Tom Jobim — from the 1967 LP A Certain Mr. Jobim, (US) Warner Bros. WS 1699, though the provider of the following video has drawn the track from the 1996 compilation Composer

According to Discogs.com, the album was also released under the title En “La Fusa” Con Maria Creuza Y Toquinho, in Argentina (1970) and Spain (1974). In France, a live album with the same 15 song titles, in the same order, was released in 1971 under the title Le Brésil de Vinicius de Moraes (EMI, Columbia). However, according to Discogs.com, each of the 15 tracks is a different length than those on the Brazilian release as reported by Wikipédia (Pt.).

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Agostinho dos Santos — from his self-titled 1973 LP on the Continental label, the last album by the artist released before his death in an airplane accident at the age of 41

Nicole Quasee — issued in April 1965 on the single DCP International Records DCP 1141 (also DCP-1141) as the B-side of “Watch What Happens” — Arranged and produced by Don Costa, this is the earliest recording of “Someone to Light Up My Life” that I’m aware of.

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Enoch Light and the Light Brigade — from the 1966 album Spanish Strings, Project 3 Total Sound PR5000SD